Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

A place to discuss casual topics amongst spiritual friends.
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cooran
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by cooran »

tiltbillings wrote:"What are we to make of a creation in which the routine activity
is for organisms to be tearing others apart with teeth of all types-
biting, grinding flesh, plant stalks, bones between molars, pushing the
pulp down the gullet with delight, incorporating its essence into one's
own organization, and then excreting with foul stench and gasses the
residue. Everyone reaching out to incorporate others who are edible to
him. The mosquitoes bloating themselves on blood, the maggots, the
killer-bees attacking with a fury and a demonism, sharks continuing to
tear and swallow while their own innards are being torn out-not to
mention the daily dismemberment and slaughter in "natural" accidents
of all types: an earthquake buries alive seventy thousand bodies in Peru,
automobiles make a pyramid heap of over fifty thousand a year in the
U.S. alone, a tidal wave washes over a quarter of a million in the
Indian Ocean. Creation is a nightmare spectacular taking place on a
planet that has been soaked for hundreds of millions of years in the
blood of all its creatures. The soberest conclusion that we could make
about what has actually been taking place on the planet for about three
billion years is that it is being turned into a vast pit of fertilizer."
--Ernst Becker THE DENIAL OF DEATH
Thanks Tilt!! This one is GREAT! :smile:

metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
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Kare
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by Kare »

Ben wrote:Nicely put, Nathan!

Speaking of road signs...

Image


Where else, but America!
In Norway, of course!

Image
Mettāya,
Kåre
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mikenz66
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by mikenz66 »

https://hellpizza.co.nz/#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mike
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Ben
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by Ben »

mikenz66 wrote:https://hellpizza.co.nz/#

Mike
I thought it was neat when my wife returnd from a trip to the in-laws in NZ a few years ago with a menu from that esteemed eatery.

Noice, unusual, different!
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
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pink_trike
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by pink_trike »

Some here may disagree with this one, but this is the lounge and I'm a cross-tradition practitioner.

Perhaps even this will have different readings by different folks. :rofl:
Attachments
end-joy-road-sign-1.jpg
end-joy-road-sign-1.jpg (47.09 KiB) Viewed 2688 times
Vision is Mind
Mind is Empty
Emptiness is Clear Light
Clear Light is Union
Union is Great Bliss

- Dawa Gyaltsen

---

Disclaimer: I'm a non-religious practitioner of Theravada, Mahayana/Vajrayana, and Tibetan Bon Dzogchen mind-training.
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zavk
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by zavk »

Hmmm... do you guys go around collecting photos of road signs? Heh....


I think I once saw the spice mix, dukkah, mis-spelled as dukkha. I remember thinking, 'Yeah, it will sure spice up your life!'
With metta,
zavk
nathan
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by nathan »

tiltbillings wrote:The emergence of intelligence, I am convinced, tends to unbalance the ecology. In other words, intelligence is the great polluter. It is not until a creature begins to manage its environment that nature is thrown into disorder. Until that occurs, there is a system of checks and balances operating in a logical and understandable manner. Intelligence destroys and modifies the checks and balances even as it tries very diligently to leave them as they were. There is no such thing as an intelligence living harmony with the biosphere. It may think and boast it is doing so, but its mentality gives it an advantage and the compulsion is always there to employ this advantage to its selfish benefit. Thus, while intelligence may be an outstanding survival factor, the factor is short-term, and intelligence turns out to be the great destroyer. -- written by a crazy character in SHAKESPEARE'S PLANET, a sci-fi novel by Clifford Simak, 1976.
With the exception of appraisal of Dhamma, insanity appears widely as underestimated as sanity is overestimated.


"We don't need another hero"
Tina Turner (t. britten, g. lyle)
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/t/tina+turne ... 32469.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
But whoever walking, standing, sitting, or lying down overcomes thought, delighting in the stilling of thought: he's capable, a monk like this, of touching superlative self-awakening. § 110. {Iti 4.11; Iti 115}
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Ben
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by Ben »

zavk wrote:Hmmm... do you guys go around collecting photos of road signs? Heh....


I think I once saw the spice mix, dukkah, mis-spelled as dukkha. I remember thinking, 'Yeah, it will sure spice up your life!'
Indeed! How about the perfume that came out 20 years ago 'Samsara'!
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
nathan
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by nathan »

I can relate to this, heard recently:

"The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start
The tragedy starts from the very first spark
Losing your mind for the sake of your heart"
-Feist

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/f/feist/let+ ... 46234.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
But whoever walking, standing, sitting, or lying down overcomes thought, delighting in the stilling of thought: he's capable, a monk like this, of touching superlative self-awakening. § 110. {Iti 4.11; Iti 115}
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pererin
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by pererin »

The little daughter of a friend of mine fell over and cut herself. Her mother, concerned, went to pick her up. "Don't worry, Mum", said the girl, "It only hurts".
nathan
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by nathan »

As 'reminiscent' this could be an endless list, so long as we understand that it is not the doctrine or any other lion's roar imho.
By some reasonable kind of acceptable exegesis, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiasties, Psalms, Gospel of John, Gospel of Thomas, etc., etc..

Boatloads of poetry.

Bruce Cockburn
Most of the 194 lyrics listed at this site.

The Tibetan Side of Town
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bruce+cock ... 12430.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
But whoever walking, standing, sitting, or lying down overcomes thought, delighting in the stilling of thought: he's capable, a monk like this, of touching superlative self-awakening. § 110. {Iti 4.11; Iti 115}
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salmon
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by salmon »

My favourite has got to be this:

The Little Prince

"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.
:anjali:
nathan
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by nathan »

salmon wrote:"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember."
Sweet.
:smile:
But whoever walking, standing, sitting, or lying down overcomes thought, delighting in the stilling of thought: he's capable, a monk like this, of touching superlative self-awakening. § 110. {Iti 4.11; Iti 115}
nathan
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by nathan »

I just found this one and I think I will try it out as potentially a good way to calm my nerves on what will be my first long distance international air flight. I'm confident it could easily live up to this excerpt from the much longer review posted for it. I'll know in a day when it is done downloading. Ok, nuff from me about this guy. He is the most consistently dhamma reminiscent contemporary artist I know of. Having also not ever expressly said he was trying to be to my knowledge.

You've Never Seen Everything 2003 Bruce Cockburn (international version)
From the iTunes album review, copyright 2009 Apple Computer Co.

"It is pointless to place this record in a pecking order with Cockburns other work; that it adds to that body of work immeasurably is compliment enough. However, to say that it is necessary because it can cause self - and world - examination in any listener who plays it through is as high a compliment as can be offered."
But whoever walking, standing, sitting, or lying down overcomes thought, delighting in the stilling of thought: he's capable, a monk like this, of touching superlative self-awakening. § 110. {Iti 4.11; Iti 115}
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zavk
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Re: Non-Buddhist writing that reminds you of the dhamma

Post by zavk »

Just paid quite a bit of money for tickets to see Simon & Garfunkel. I never though I could see them live and this is probably the last time they will tour internationally.

To me, artistes like Leonard Cohen and Simon & Garfunkel (ok Ben, I'll add Bob Dylan too, but like Retro I can't quite get into his music :shrug:) have an amazing ability to speak the truth of samsara in achingly beautiful ways.

Patterns by Simon & Garfunkel

The night sets softly
With the hush of falling leaves,
Casting shivering shadows
On the houses through the trees,
And the light from a street lamp
Paints a pattern on my wall,
Like the pieces of a puzzle
Or a child's uneven scrawl.

Up a narrow flight of stairs
In a narrow little room,
As I lie upon my bed
In the early evening gloom.
Impaled on my wall
My eyes can dimly see
The pattern of my life
And the puzzle that is me.

From the moment of my birth
To the instant of my death,
There are patterns I must follow
Just as I must breathe each breath.
Like a rat in a maze
The path before me lies,
And the pattern never alters
Until the rat dies.

And the pattern still remains
On the wall where darkness fell,
And it's fitting that it should,
For in darkness I must dwell.
Like the color of my skin,
Or the day that I grow old,
My life is made of patterns
That can scarcely be controlled.


Metta,
zavk
With metta,
zavk
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